Except, I wasn’t alone. I reached for the silver band on my wrist. Bellanax was with me. But all my sessions with Deverell had taught me that my connection to the sword was stronger with it unglamoured. Thinking only about the danger and not the consequences, I freed it from the disguise.
“Don’t you dare try anything,” I said, pointing the sword at him. “It won’t work while I’m holding this.”
Mr. Corvus’s narrowed-eyed gaze told me just how impressed he was by this assertion. “I’m quite familiar with The Will sword, young lady.” Then as if to prove it, he gave a flick of his hand, and Bellanax was wrenched out of my grip. It went sailing across the room toward him. He caught the sword one-handed.
Terror came over me, squeezing me so hard I couldn’t even scream. I couldn’t do anything but stare at this man, my body in total paralysis.
“But for the record,” Mr. Corvus said, “I won’t be trying anything.” He lowered the sword and then applied the glamour, transforming it back into a silver band. He tossed it at me.
I barely caught it, clapping my hands around it at the last second. Disbelief pulsed in my temples. Was he toying with me? Or did he really mean it? I glanced down at Bellanax, probing the sword with my mind, worried that he’d messed with it somehow. But the sword felt perfectly normal.
“You can put it back on,” Corvus said, a touch of impatience in his voice. “There’s nothing wrong with it. No harm can come to that sword from anyone but you.”
I frowned, but slid the bracelet back onto my wrist. “What do you mean but me?”
“It is a sword of power, imbued with soul magic from its first victim,” said Corvus. “It is indestructible except from within. As its master, you control all the power inside it.”
I started to ask him what he meant exactly, but he cut me off.
“Don’t get me wrong, of course. I’m well within my rights to punish you both for trespassing into my home like this.”
Overcoming some of my shock, I said, “What did you do to Paul?”
Corvus glanced at the boy slumped on the floor beside me. “Nothing he won’t recover from shortly. No offense to him, but you and I are well past due for a private chat.” His gaze flicked back to me. “But I promise that your boyfriend will be fine and you two will leave here without so much as a hair out of place.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said, hands clenching into fists. “My boyfriend has been abducted.”
“Oh, yes, of course. But as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, it wasn’t by me.” Corvus motioned around the room. “You’ve been all through my house and haven’t found anything amiss, correct?”
I frowned. “Like that means anything. How did you know we were coming?”
Mr. Corvus made a sound like a growl. “I didn’t. As a matter of fact, I was just getting ready to make myself a cup of tea and read for a few hours when I heard you at the door.”
“You were supposed to be at yoga.” Too late I realized this probably wasn’t information I should’ve divulged.
Corvus didn’t miss a beat. “Decided to skip it, after spending half the night looking for your other boyfriend.”
“What do you mean other—” I paused, scowling. “Like looking for Eli matters if you’re the one who took him.”
Corvus shook his head. “So suspicious. And so very much like your mother.”
Resisting the urge to pull out Bellanax once more, I said, “What do you know about my mother?”
“A good deal more than you.” Mr. Corvus waved his hand again, and from the farthest, darkest corner of the room, another wooden chair floated over to me. “Why don’t you have a seat and we’ll talk things through.”
I considered my options for a couple of seconds. But in the end, there weren’t any. Not unless I went for a preemptive strike. Considering how easily he’d disarmed me already that seemed a bad idea. Finally, I exhaled and sat down. But I didn’t make myself comfortable. I perched on the edge of the seat, ready to leap into action if this crazy one-eyed man decided to try anything funny.
“Thank you.” Corvus tented his hands in front of him. “Now, before I go into details, let me start by reassuring you that I had nothing at all to do with your mother’s disappearance or Eli’s or even the Death’s Heart.”
I flinched at his knowledge. “How do you know about the Death’s Heart?” It was weird being able to say it aloud to someone new.
“Lady Elaine has kept me informed. And yes, she told me your suspicions about me as well.”
I folded my arms over my chest, a feeling of betrayal coming over me. Why did she have to tell him? If he had turned out to be the bad guy—and I hadn’t yet decided he wasn’t—then she tipped him off to be ready for me. “So you really are working for her?”
“With her would be more accurate. And with your mother.” Corvus inclined his head. “I’m here to help Lady Elaine root out Marrow’s supporters, and also, most importantly, to discover the man who freed Marrow from his tomb.”
I inhaled sharply.
Corvus ran a hand over his goatee. “Yes, that’s right. Your mother and I have been after the same thing for a while now. We crossed paths some eight months ago and have since combined our efforts.”
I examined his expression, trying to decide if I could believe him, but he was impossible to read, immutable as stone. “If that’s true, why didn’t she tell me about you?”
“She swore to keep me a secret, same as Lady Elaine. The fewer people who know the truth the better. How else am I supposed to uncover such a man as the one we’re hunting?” Corvus pointed his finger. “He’s always a step ahead.”
“Okay,” I said, seeing his point. “But what does that have to do with me?”
“Because we are hunting the same man, Destiny Everhart.”
I went very still, even though my heart was now galloping inside my chest. “Are you saying the man who freed Marrow is the same one who stole the Death’s Heart?”
“Yes. And I believe he kidnapped Bethany Grey, your mother, and Eli as well.”
I slumped against the chair, overwhelmed by this news. It was one thing for me to have suspected it, but quite another to have it confirmed. How were we ever going to capture such a person? “Do you know who it is?” I said, sounding more hopeful than I intended.
Corvus grimaced. “No. But take heart. We are closing in on him, I’ve never been more certain.”
“How?” Despair made my voice breathy.
“First, you must understand how hard this has been,” said Corvus. “It’s taken me a very long time to learn it, but the person who freed Marrow from his prison is a shape-changer.”
For a second the word struck my brain without registering any meaning. When it did I was glad I was sitting down. “Selene was right.”
“Excuse me?” Corvus raised his single eyebrow.
I shook my head. “I thought shape-changers were extinct.”
Corvus sighed and leaned back in the chair. “That’s an impossibility, given their nature.”
I stared at him, trying to decide if he was disappointed or relieved to know that an entire group of magickind was incapable of being annihilated. Given that he was a Nightmare, I chose to go with the latter.
“With their ability to steal shapes,” Corvus continued, “the man could be anyone at Arkwell. No matter how long that person has been here. The shape-changer could be Dr. Hendershaw and no one would ever have known it.”
“But … but how?” My mind began to reel. “There’s more to being a person than what they look like. Wouldn’t somebody have caught him in a goof by now?”
Corvus shook his head. “It all depends on how the shape-changer stole the shape in the first place.”
“Don’t they just need their teeth?”
Corvus looked surprised by my knowledge, but he only nodded. “Teeth is one way for a shape-changer to shift. But a single touch is all they need to borrow your shape for a limited period of time. In both cases, they only steal the body as you said. But if a shape-changer wants to completely assume another person’s life, they can do so by first killing the person and then consuming their heart.”
I inhaled and felt my gag reflex kick in. “Do you mean eating them? Like cannibals?”
“Yes, it’s both a physical and magical act for them,” Corvus said, seemingly oblivious to the way my face was turning green. “It allows them to assume the victim’s shape permanently, and it gives the shape-changer access to every memory, mannerism, and emotion that the person possessed. They can quite literally become that person.”
I ran my hand over my mouth, willing my stomach to settle. The idea that someone at Arkwell, one of my teachers perhaps, or maybe even someone like Mr. Culpepper was actually a shape-changer in disguise, one dining on hearts like some magickind version of Hannibal Lecter, made my skin crawl.
With an effort, I managed to keep my cool long enough to ask, “Aren’t there any distinguishing signs of a shape-changer? Like the way our eyes glow in the dark?”
“There is a sign, but it’s very hard to detect.” Corvus shifted his weight in the chair, crossing one leg over the other. “They have a strange ridge on the roof of their mouth.”
“Oh,” I said. “Well that’s helpful.”
“Indeed. Short of physically assaulting every faculty and staff member at Arkwell long enough for me to probe their mouths, I never stood a chance of simply recognizing the shape-changer. Any time I get close, all he has to do is steal another form.”
Frustration began to build inside me. I wasn’t sure when I’d decided to believe his story, but I definitely did now. Too much of it made sense, and I’d been alone with him for quite a while; he’d had ample time to do me harm.
“This is impossible,” I said. “You’ve been searching for this guy for months with no luck. How am I ever going to find him in time to rescue my mother and Eli?”
To my surprise Corvus’s face brightened. “It just so happens that these recent developments might have given us a way to succeed. And it’s why I’m so glad you sought me out today.”
I leaned forward, still skeptical but willing to hope. “How do you mean?”
“I don’t know why the shape-changer has stolen the Death’s Heart,” Corvus said. “Marrow does not need it to come to life. At least he has never needed such a thing before.”
“Wait.” I raised my hand. “How do you know so much about Marrow?”
“I’m surprised you haven’t guessed already.” Corvus tapped a finger against his breastbone “Once you found out about my Borromean brand, that is.”
I stared at him, my mind trying to solve the puzzle. “Those men with the brands … they were there when Nimue…”
“Trapped Marrow in the dream, yes,” Corvus said as I faltered. “There were twelve of them. There are always twelve of us—the Borromean Brotherhood, as we call ourselves. Four darkkind, four naturekind, four witchkind.”
“We?” I blinked. “So that means that you—”
“Have dedicated my life to keeping Marrow sealed in his tomb.”
I took a moment to process this information, but there were too many questions. Too much I didn’t understand. I cleared my throat. “There are twelve of you?”
Color darkened Corvus’s cheeks. “There were twelve of us.”
“Were?”
Corvus rubbed a thumb over his ring finger, and his voice darkened as he said, “Only the blood of the twelve can undo the circle.”
I flinched at the familiar quote.
“The shape-changer killed them,” Corvus said a moment later. He drew a breath, and I sensed his struggle to control his emotions. His anger seemed to come off him like waves of heat off a bonfire—anger and hatred. “He murdered us one by one. All but me.” Corvus motioned to his missing eye. “I am the only one who survived the attack.”
I swallowed a mixture of pity and revulsion. I couldn’t imagine what it must’ve been like for him to go through that. But it made me inclined to trust him. This wasn’t just about justice for him. It was about vengeance, too, and that was a powerful motivation. I could only hope it would be enough to save my mom and Eli.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “So you said you had a way to get the shape-changer now. What is it?”
“You,” Corvus said at once.
“Me?” A chill slid over my skin.
Corvus nodded, his expression growing even more intense than before. It seemed to glow with a newfound fervor. “Of the people the shape-changer has abducted recently, the only thing they have in common is you.”
Eli and my mother, I thought, knowing he was right. “What about Bethany?”
Corvus waved the question off. “I’m not sure why he took her, although he had his reasons, no doubt. But they don’t matter now. What does, is that he seems to be targeting the people close to you.”
“But why?” I wrung my hands, the reality of this truth hitting me like a blow to the gut. For a moment I wanted to curl into a ball, the fetal position the only way to cope with the guilt. My mom and Eli were both suffering right now—because of me. Assuming they weren’t dead yet.
“Again, I don’t know why,” Corvus said, and I could hear the regret in his voice. It made me feel like crying.
“But what I do know,” he continued, “is that you are the key to finding him. I’ve suspected as much since the moment I found out that you had bonded with The Will sword. Your mother has worried about you being dragged into this from the beginning, which is why she insisted so stridently that we keep you in the dark about the shape-changer for as long as possible. She worried that you might try and go after him yourself.”
“Yeah well, she was right.” I folded my arms across my chest and began to tap my foot against the concrete floor. “But knowing he’s targeting me, what can I do to help find him?”
“The hardest thing of all,” Corvus said. “Be patient.”
“Huh?”
He bobbed his head, his single eye overly bright. “I need you to wait and let him come for you. He’s going to, I know it. And when he does, I’m going to be there to catch him.”
I blinked, my mouth sliding open again. “You want to use me as bait?”
“In lieu of a less vulgar expression, yes.” Corvus bared his teeth in an almost feral smile. “It will take a significant amount of bravery on your part. But if you’re anything like your mother, I know you can do it.”
Tears stung my eyes as he said it. I knew he might be manipulating my emotions on purpose, but it worked nevertheless. “I’ll do it. But if he comes for me, how am I supposed to let you know?”
“It’s simple, actually.” Corvus stood up and reached into his pocket, withdrawing a small object I’d never seen before. “And it’s something he will never see coming.”
* * *
Half an hour later, Paul and I left Mr. Corvus’s house. Corvus had taken off the spell that had incapacitated Paul only a few minutes before. He’d been livid at first, demanding an explanation of what happened. But I couldn’t tell him. Corvus was right about that. Nobody could know the plan we’d just set in motion. In the end, I had to appeal to Paul’s better nature.
I took his hand and squeezed his fingers, pleading. “You’re going to have to trust me, Paul. All right? Just trust me.”
He watched my face for several seconds, not speaking, then he slowly nodded.
After that we’d climbed the steps out of the cellar and headed for the front door. Mr. Corvus watched us go, not speaking a word to either Paul or me. We got into the car and started to make our way back to Arkwell.
When we were less than five minutes from campus, Paul pulled into an alley.
“What are you doing?” I said as the car came to a stop.
“Time to put on our faces again,” he said, retrieving his shape-change necklace.
“Right.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out mine as well. I stared at the necklace with its smooth, yellowed teeth, an uneasy feeling in my stomach. After what I’d learned from Mr. Corvus about shape-changer magic, I couldn’t believe that the magickind police force sanctioned the use of these necklaces. Then again, I supposed maybe it didn’t surprise me that much, even now. The Magi Senate wasn’t above using black magic to meet its own ends. Still, once we got back to campus I was going to follow through with my vow to destroy it.
“You coming?” Paul said, startling me out of my reverie. I looked up to see that he’d already slid on his necklace and changed back into the Menagerie worker.
“Yeah, just a sec.” I put on the necklace and immediately felt the shift into the other woman. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Paul pulled the car out of the alley and back onto the main drag. I felt my phone buzz in my back pocket and pulled it out.
“Who’s it from?” Paul said, glancing over.
“Selene, she—” I broke off as I read the message. Once. Twice. Three times. Fear closed in around me like collapsing walls.
Lance is awake, Selene had written. He saw his attacker. It was Paul.